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POLITICO 44

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) send a letter to DOJ - first reported by Fox News - that accused the department’s Inspector General, Cynthia Schnedar, of compromising their investigation by releasing secret tape recordings to targets of their probe.

“Each of these disclosures undermines our ability to assess the candor of witnesses in our investigation and thus obstructs it,” wrote the two Republicans in a letter dated Tuesday. “Moreover, your decision to immediately disclose the recordings to those you are investigating creates at least the appearance, if not more, that your inquiry is not sufficiently objective and independent.

The DOJ Inspector General argues it was required to turn the tapes over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice under the legal rules of discovery.

Both Congress and the DOJ Inspector General are conducting investigations into the department’s role in the gun program. Issa and Grassley are concerned that releasing the tapes to the U.S. Attorney’s Office - a potential target in their investigation - might obstruct their inquiries.

The tapes Issa and Grassley are referring to were recorded by Andre Howard, a firearms dealer who was recruited by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to sell arms to a Mexican cartel. On two occasions, Howard recorded Hope MacAllister, the lead agent in the Fast and Furious case.

Howard’s lawyer, Larry Gaydos, said that Howard was recording MacAllister in an effort to implicate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the gun-running scheme.

Schnedar did not even listen to the recordings before handing them over, say the two Republicans.

Issa and Grassley said the Inspector General’s disclosure represented an obstruction to their investigation of the Department of Justice.

“It appears that you did not consider the significant harm that providing these recordings to the very individuals under investigation could cause to either our inquiry or your own,” they wrote.

The 2009 “Fast and Furious” operation involved ATF agents who tracked purchases of guns and allowed them cross from the United States into Mexico in hopes that the weapons would lead them to major weapons traffickers and drug cartel leaders. Instead, hundreds of rifles and other guns ended up in the hands of the cartels, and the operation was unsuccessful.

In fact, weapons linked to the program were later involved in the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Meanwhile Obama tells us he needs even more money for the government. No - I don't think so. I think it's time for some people to go to jial. I think it's time for some people to get fired. I think it's time for some real government belt-tightening. It think it's time to rein in a lawless Department of Justice.

It's bad enough that they are not doing their job and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars, but they now seem to have gone over and actively joined those committing violence against the American citizens. And don't look to this administration to do anything about it.

Time for a change. Time for a smaller government. Time for a new administration.

"The DOJ Inspector General argues it was required to turn the tapes over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice under the legal rules of discovery.".........................No complaint has been filed. The federal rules of discovery do not apply until a complaint has been filed. Cynthia Schnedar is lying.

Why would the DOJ be trying to obstruct justice and interfere and undermine congressional investigations?

Based on historical examples, this type of thing only happens when there are great misdeeds that are trying to be kept from being exposed to the truth and light of justice.

This type of thing historically only occurs when there is great corruption and fear.

I do not have confidence in this attorney general and do not see where they have laid out a strong case in defense of the facts. And their recent actions give cause for even more concern and alarm from this administration.

They only bleat "mistakes were made" but this goes far beyond "honest mistakes".

I think he is a closet racist and part of a racist administration that works from a position of hatred, national division, corruption, injustice, cronyism, and abuse. You will note that the Democrats love to cast around the world "racist" even against each other at times when they are having their own internecine warfare - until it's cast at them from outside their party. Then suddenly they are filled with hypocrisy and false moral outrage.

Subsequently I think that many Americans now fear their own government far more than any threat to them personally from terrorists. I think this administration smacks of the kind of people that would start assassinating their own citizens for dissent and disagreement. There are truly some members of the Cult of Obama in and around this administration who are guzzling the Kool-aid to that degree that they would become traitors.

They don't carry themselves like a just and fair government. They carry themselves like a fearful regime and fearful regimes often lash out at their own people and the world with violence at some point.

The words and deeds of this administration and it's supporting party belay the evil intent and corruption of their souls.

This is the legacy of the Obama administration unless it comes clean and cleans up its act. One of the most corrupt administrations in our history.

The DOJ Inspector General argues it was required to turn the tapes over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice under the legal rules of discovery.

That's odd. The government often can and does delay handing over things under the rules of discovery - often stonewalling for months or years. It also happens in cases outside the government.

But suddenly in THIS case, we find that the DOJ was in a rush to get the tapes to "their guys". This really smells like witness tampering or something.

Show me where the feeling that corruption and injustice is occuring is wrong or misguided.

Hundreds of Mexicans have been killed because of these guns, we ;lost a boarder agent. Why is this story not on the front page of every newspaper in the country? Do you think Mexico will just sit back and watch this continue? Holder needs to go, now, he should be in jail.

Now that we are investigating Fast and Furious why don't we expand it. It is being reported that The State Department is selling military grade weapons to the Zeta drug Cartel. Do we hear this in the media? No! Odd our government is arming very dangerous people right on our borders. Do you think they have some ungodly motives to arm these people? Sounds like it!

The racist Eric Holder should have been fired right after he "broomed" the most egregious case of voter intimidation in US history when charges were dropped against two armed Black Panthers at a Philadelphia voting location. He said he didn't want to prosecute "my people". So to hell with the rest of the American people...Right Mr. Attorney General?

Holder should be summoned before Congress to explain his incredibly travesties and perversions of the Laws of the Land. The latest travesty is his refusal to deport illegal aliens in a "backdoor" amnesty scheme that circumvents Congress contrived by the worst President in US history in his power crazed efforts to be reelected.

Now we have the so called "Justice Dept" lying and deceiving the American people regarding gun running into Mexico which in reality was a plot to subvert the second amendment rights of the American people using American made arms flowing into Mexico as a justification for more draconian gun control in the US.

Holder is dangerous, refuses to enforce our laws and needs to be fired immediately. Obama should be impeached before he does any further damage to America

"The Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gun program targeted Mexican drug cartels but ended up inadvertently supplying them with firearms.

This is clearly not true as the entire reason for Fast and Furious was to funnel guns to the Mexican drug cartels with the express purpose of using the resulting chaos as a reason for gun control in the US. This can be seen by the very nature of Fast and Furious. There was no attempt to interdict any of the weapons before they left the US and no way to grab them once they were in Mexico. So clearly the intent was to allow the weapons into Mexico.

And then:

that accused the department’s Inspector General, Cynthia Schnedar, of compromising their investigation by releasing secret tape recordings to targets of their probe.

Of course she is getting in the way. It is clear that Fast and Furious was a DOJ operation from the git go and as such the DOJ knows that they (Holder and his boss) will ultimately be the ones being investigated. This is clear and since they aren't stupid (corrupt but not stupid) they know that if they don't do all they can to stymie this investigation Obama and the DOJ will be facing a special prosecutor right before the 2012 election.

Horsecrap Tim Mak, complete Horsecrap! The operation did not "inadvertently" supply guns to the drug cartels as you claim. It supplied those weapon purposely, with forethought and malice intending to create a great deal of bloodshed so Barack ObamaSoros could hold up those weapons as evidence to support the utterly fabricated narrative he, Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton were spinning as rationalization for more gun control on American citizens.

You can shill for these criminals all you care to but the testimony is crystal clear as to what they did and their intentions right up to an including the satisfaction some supervisors expressed with the resulting body counts.

Obstruction of Justice by the DOJ and Obama Administration. The Inspector General obtained the tape and gave it to one of the person (could be Lanny Breuer/Assistant Attorney General) under investigation by Issa's committee. Issa has had the same exact tape since May. Issa now loses an advantage from knowledge he gained from the tape to question the DOJ.

'BanaDon....great insight. Good ol' Issa resides a few miles down the CA coast from here and the poor dear has tried forever to be relevant and has finally hit it, a Chairmanship. Yahoo! FYI to the rest of America, when he TRIED to run for Governor here against Swhwartzeneger, he couldn't even get a foot hold in his own party, and the Republicans were chomping at the bit to recall Davis, the Dem incumbent. Issa couldn't even get on the local radio talk shows! He was booted before he even started. He is a joke among men.